WTF: Blade of the Immortal Anime Series?

I've been reading Blade of the Immortal in manga format over 10 years now. It's one of my favorite manga. Hiroaki Samura really crafted something special with the title. His art style is really unique cause he incorporates many panels done in a finished, shaded pencil style rather than in inked line art which most Japanese manga choose to incorporate. I'd go into the story but you could use the links to do that yourself. I came across news of the anime series browsing the web for new anime releases to pick up for the store. I was quite shocked to see this because Samura has stated many times over in interviews that he doesn't believe the manga could function properly as an anime title. What changed his mind is still a mystery as no interviews have surfaced yet. The series is being handled by Production I.G's (Ghost in the Shell) subsidiary BeeTrain studios (.Hack, Madlax, Noir). The director is Koichi Mashimo. Personally I'm very skeptical of the series working as an anime due to the art style not likely able to make a good transition to color successfully. The pencil shaded art style plays a key role in how the manga handles things like character expression, action and even anatomy. I just don't think it'll work well in color. We'll have to wait and see though. The series starts airing on Japan's AT-X animation satellite channel the 24th of April.